


Animus Fractus

by feminabeata



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-02
Packaged: 2018-01-18 00:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1407862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feminabeata/pseuds/feminabeata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim Sunggyu led a very dull and boring life. He just didn't know it...until he came face to face with someone else's Id.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Animus Fractus

**Author's Note:**

> Animus Fractus: Latin for "a broken mind" or "a fractured soul"

Kim Sunggyu's life was dull. Not to him, though. He thought his life was normal and sometimes, when he bent a rule ever-so-slightly, it was exciting. But to anyone on the outside looking in on his life, watching paint dry was more entertaining. In fact, once when Sunggyu was telling his friend Howon what happened to him that day, Howon was spacing off, his gaze drifting off behind Sunggyu's head. When Sunggyu asked what his friend was looking at, Howon said that he couldn't figure out if the spot behind Sunggyu's head was a tiny bug or a spec of dirt.

A spec of dirt was more interesting than Kim Sunggyu.

 But Sunggyu didn't know it. He didn't have the slightest clue. He just assumed that Howon was being the jerk that he normally was. But Sunggyu soon met with this realization when suddenly a strange, rough hand clamped over his mouth from behind and another hand grabbed his waist, throwing him down onto the ground. But before his back made contact with this rocky soil, a voice whispered harshly into his ear, "I found you, you little f****er."

 

* * *

But, perhaps, we need to explore what Sunggyu did just moments before he was tossed onto the earth like a rag doll...or more precisely, what he didn't do. What he didn't do was skip class or fall asleep during it, like the rest of his class, as his philosophy teacher was lecturing endlessly  in his monotone voice about Plato's "Allegory of the Chariot." No, Sunggyu wouldn't dream of doing that. Instead he was enthralled by the boring lecture. A boring man being absorbed in another boring man's story; they were kindred spirits.  And so Sunggyu was meticulously taking notes, whispering the words he wrote under his breath so that it would be forever ingrained in his mind. To him, the "Allegory of the Chariot" described the human soul perfectly. A majestic white horse representing reason contrasted against the bucking black horse standing in for human instinct, and then there was the gallant charioteer reigning both in, indulging in both's strength equally so that the chariot would straightly and peacefully travel down the rocky road that was life.

Sunggyu smiled to himself. He believed that he was Plato's ideal charioteer, giving into both his rational side and impulses equally. Even the night before (on a school night nonetheless), he had drunk two beers. For him, it was naughty. For the rest of his dowsing class, it would just be like any other day. He really had no concept of what it was like to misbehave, to behave on impulse. He had loosened the wild, black horse from his chariot miles back and relied on the strength of his white horse alone.

To his dismay, the lecture was finished. He gathered up his belongings as was the last one to leave the lecture hall, after thanking the professor for such a stimulating class. He walked outside and stared up at the sky, taking in a deep breath which gradually turned into a yawn. He was tired, either from mental exhaustion or from those two beers he probably shouldn't have drank the night before. But the yawn soon morphed into a smile as he looked at the gray, cloudy sky. It was his favorite type of weather, gloom and gray. Then he smelled it, the promise of rain, and the smile vanished from his face. Looking at the quickly darkening sky, he gathered that he had a few minutes to duck into the library to wait out the storm before he became completely soaked.

He was about to make his way over there when the strange hand grabbed his mouth from behind, muffling his protests. "I found you, you little f****er." Then his body was tackled to the ground. His eyes had shut themselves tightly as he fell and hit the earth, and when he opened them, he was staring face to face with a wild-looking black haired man whose entire face was made up of sharp features, from his cutting jawline to the tips of his pointed eyes. Well, all except for his large, soft lips, which did not seem to fit in with the rest of his face until they pulled back into a smile and framed his gleaming white teeth.

If Sunggyu's chariot was driven solely by his white horse, this boy's was drawn by his black horse alone. No, it was like he had abandoned the chariot altogether and rode on the stallion bareback.

"I said that we were going to grab him on the count of three," Sunggyu heard another voice say. Sunggyu tried to turn to see its source, but the boy had pinned him down to the ground such that even a slight movement of the neck was near impossible.

"I got him! I got him!" the wild boy cheered as he loosened his grip on Sunggyu and stood himself up so that he was sitting on Sunggyu's lap. The boy was pulled upright by a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, just don't let him go," the owner of the second voice said as he knelt down next to his companion. His face was cold and stoic, unlike his friend's. His voice also matched his expression, deep and monotone. The combination of the two had sent shivers down Sunggyu's spine. This boy appeared to be one of those gangsters with an antisocial personality disorder that Sunggyu thought only existed in the realm of movies and dramas. The boy analyzed Sunggyu with his dark eyes. "It'd be a bitch to find him again."

"Who are you?" Sunggyu asked weakly, barely able to find his voice. He then cleared his throat and gathered up his courage. "Get off of me! Get off NOW!" he yelled trying to shove the wild boy off of him, but the boy didn't even budge and instead, intercepted Sunggyu's hands, lacing his own fingers with his, and pinned them to the ground with a soft laugh.

"Who are we?" the second boy asked with a scoff. He ran his fingers through his long hair, obviously frustrated. "Are you trying to be cute? Haha very funny." He then hit the wild boy in the arm, signaling him to let go of Sunggyu. Thankfully, the other boy listened, his hands left Sunggyu's.

Sunggyu propped himself on his elbows and stared at the second boy, who appeared to be calling the shots in this entire ordeal. "You've got the wrong guy. I didn't do anything," Sunggyu tried to say with a steady voice, confident. _I never do anything_ , Sunggyu thought. Then he racked his mind, searching for any reason why two gangsters would attack him like this (they had to be gangsters. Normal people don't just attack a complete stranger out of the blue). The only solution that Sunggyu came to was that Hoya must have given the gangsters his name to pay off some gambling debt. It sounded like something Hoya would do. Sunggyu decided to kill him the next time he saw him...okay maybe not kill. Sunggyu probably would end up lecturing Hoya until his eyes glazed over and just gave in.

"The wrong guy?" the boy with the hard expression broke into Sunggyu's thoughts. He then pulled on the pockets of Sunggyu's khaki pants. "Come on, you scream 'moral fiber' and 'upstanding citizen.' And your pants are pleated!" he argued. Sunggyu slapped his hand away, not knowing what his formerly pressed pants had to do with anything. The boy rested the hand on his own knee. And he took in a deep breath before talking to Sunggyu with gritted teeth. "Did you run away to teach me a lesson? Fine! I learned it okay! Now come with us," he commanded, grabbing Sunggyu's arm and tried to pull him up.

But it was impossible because there was still a massive weight sitting on Sunggyu's lap, smiling at him. "I'm going no where. Especially not with this oaf on top of me," Sunggyu explained to the second boy pointing at the fierce looking boy.

The said boy snapped at Sunggyu's finger (which he fortunately retracted just in time before it was bitten). The boy then narrowed his pointed eyes and growled, "I'm not an oaf." His expression was almost lethal, and Sunggyu felt his stomach drop and throat clench. But then the expression morphed into a warm smile as he giggled, "But that's a funny word. Hehehe." Then he finally got off of Sunggyu, stood up, and pulled up Sunggyu to stand with him. Still not letting go of his forearm, the boy swung it back and forth as he said, "Come with us! It's where you belong. Gosh! You're taller than I thought you would be." He exclaimed as he looked Sunggyu up and down (who suddenly felt subconscious because he was not as tall as the boy made him out to be). Then the boy looked at all three of them and stomped his foot. "Hey! Why am I the shortest one? That's not fair. He should be the tallest, right? That would only make sense," he whined pointing at the boy with the unchanging face. Then the smiling boy looked up all of the sudden, his attention caught by something he saw out of the corner of his eye. "Oh look a butterfly!" he exclaimed as he suddenly chased after it and tried to catch it in his hands.

Sunggyu watched the peculiar boy chase after the insect for a few seconds, wondering how it was possible for someone around his age could act so childish, so free. He glanced at the other boy, whose eyes were tracing the butterfly's path. Yet, the stone-faced boy stood still, not even attempting to reign in his flighty friend, leaving Sunggyu to wonder who was really calling the shots here. In fact Sunggyu was wondering too much about them rather than doing what he should have been doing, making a clean escape. He could go right now, and neither would notice. But instead Sunggyu thought it would be better to resolve the problem the best way he knew how, with words and honesty. "Look," he began. The gangster looking boy faced him while his friend was frolicking in the distance. "I think you have the wrong guy. My name is Kim...Dongwoo." Well, so much for honesty, but Sunggyu wasn't so willing to give up his name to complete strangers who look like mobsters who are probably hounding him because freakin' Lee Howon didn't know when to fold in poker (although Sunggyu had no evidence rather than just his gut instincts at this point to prove that Hoya was a secret gambling addict).

The cold boy scoffed and sarcastically remarked in a dry voice, "What a coincidence! His name is Dongwoo too." He gestured with his head towards the prancing boy who was now giggling with glee having caught the elusive butterfly.

"Really?" Sunggyu exclaimed. It figured that even a name that he made up would be completely average and common.

The other shrugged. "Why not? It's better to actually call him by a name."

Before Sunggyu could question him about that, the boy supposedly also named Dongwoo ran up to them and shouted to them while gasping for air, having lost his breath running or from the excitement of it all, "I caught it! Do you want to see it?" Sunggyu and the other leaned forward but then Dongwoo pulled away. "No wait! Let me look first," he said peering between his fingers to peek at his insect prize. Then he gasped and looked up at them with large eyes (Sunggyu didn't even know eyes could grow that large, or a mouth could hang that wide open either). The eyes soon disappeared into crescents as he giggled quietly and admitted in a small voice, "Oh, I killed it." He showed them his palms covered in insect innards.

Taking it as a sign that his innards will soon be squashed by the two bumbling thugs, Sunggyu slowly backed away from the strangers (who were becoming increasingly strange with each passing second). "Well, this has been fun. I'm going to go now," he said as politely as he could lest he provoke the two, but as soon as he turned his back from them. Sunggyu muttered under his breath, "Bunch of crazies."

Apparently, one of them had supersonic hearing and gave Sunggyu a hard push. "Hey! We're not crazy!" Dongwoo growled. Sunggyu turned to them shocked and apologetic. Dongwoo's eyes were giving him that lethal stare again, and his friend's cold gaze was sending chills up Sunggyu's spine again. But then the coldness soon evaded him as something warm and slightly rough grasped his hand. It was Dongwoo, holding his hand and looking at their fingers as they laced over one another. "We're just separated," he whispered.

Sunggyu violently ripped his hand from Dongwoo's and took a step back. "From what? From reality?" he scoffed slowly backing further and further away. "Leave me alone!"

The cold one reached for Dongwoo's hand (which was extending towards Sunggyu as if asking him to come back). He began to clean his friend's hands of the gross insect remnants. The gesture was so unexpected, so tender that it made Sunggyu halt his retreating step. He was watching carefully as the strange boy blew the dirt from Dongwoo's hands. "No," the boy spoke. Sunggyu snapped his head, and their eyes met. "We're separated from each other. He's my Id and you're my Superego...aren't you?"

And that's when Sunggyu felt it, the first raindrop of biggest storm of the year.

* * *

Things like this always happen to Woohyun. While Sunggyu's life was duller than a rock, Woohyun's life was exciting and interesting...and tiring. He was always known as the boy with a story to tell. Stories that were borderline unbelievable, things that would only happen to someone if they were lucky enough, or unfortunate enough. At parties, he was often the main attraction, garnering attention as soon as he walked into the room. People would ask him to "tell that one story, you know that one with that thing that one time." Funny enough, Woohyun would always know what story they were referring too, and he would gladly retell it because he was always the one to please others.

But sometimes Woohyun would wonder how other people would feel about him without a story to tell. Was he interesting? Or were the things that happened to him interesting? It was a fine line, and it wouldn't bother most people. But it bothered Woohyun. He wanted to be liked for himself, for his entire self, the boring bits included.  

And so one lonesome afternoon when Woohyun was left alone in his apartment with these pestering thoughts (his roommate, Sungyeol, had ducked out earlier to play with his newly made friend, which also caused Woohyun to wonder if he had lost his spark because Sungyeol didn't even invite him to come along like he normally did). And so he was left, sighing listlessly as he stared dramatically out the window, pondering the stereotypical questions that any twenty-something year-old in an identity crisis would: _Who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What do I even want to do? What do I even like? Well, I like pizza.  But what can I do with that? Bake it? Nah, Boohyun's a chef, and I'm already sick of being compared to my older brother...Maybe I can become a professional pizza eater? They have competitive eaters in Japan. Maybe if I just fly over there and..._

But then something caught his eye and derailed his stupid thoughts. It was the answer. Just across the street, a neon sign that Woohyun had never noticed before. It read: "Psychic Readings." And who better to answer his questions than something who could hypothetically see into the future (or at least someone who could read his character well enough)? Either way, it would waste time until Sungyeol would come home, and Woohyun could finally shake off this lonesome feeling.

After quickly throwing on appropriate clothes (not like Woohyun hadn't ever walked outside with just his boxers on, but that's another story for another time), Woohyun dashed across the street and down the staircase leading to the basement of the building.

Woohyun rapt on the door, but no one answered. Being the impatient man he was, he grabbed onto the doorknob just to test it. It was unlocked. He slowly turned the knob and opened the door. After stepping inside, Woohyun immediately considers bolting back out, spewing apologies. This place did not look anything like a typical psychic shop with mystical artwork and gadgets littering a dark room. Not at all. It was as if he wandered into someone's basement apartment, particularly a girl's as the walls were covered in movie and idol band posters and even her laundry was left out to dry in the middle of the room...including her bras.

"Uh sor-" he began but then he was cut off.

"Oh! A customer!" A blonde head revealed itself from behind the drying racks. The small girl with pigtail braids stood up after putting the last t-shirt on the rack. Then she stuffed her hands into her orange track suit pants and smiled brightly at him. Her round cheeks becoming even more plush with her smile. "Soooo..." she began, resting on her heels. 

"Soooo..." Woohyun repeated after her. Of course the first psychic he'd ever gone to would end up like this: looking like a 12 year-old without a friggin' clue.

"Oh!" she exclaimed and slapped her head. "Silly me! You want a reading, right?" She walked over to her kitchen table laden with empty junk food wrappers and beauty products. With a quick swipe of her arm, she pushed it all to the side and brought out a crystal ball from underneath the table, carefully setting it in front of her. She then looked up at Woohyun who was rooted in his spot. "Come on. Sit down," she said, patting the chair across from her with her foot. "Come on. I don't bite," she joked.

Woohyun wasn't scared of the weird psychic; he was more concerned with the state of the incredibly cramped apartment and whether if he would get tetanus from sitting in that chair (and he thought girls were supposed to be clean). But not wanting to appear rude, he sat down, while touching as little of the chair as possible and keeping his hands deep in his pockets.

The psychic giggled. "I'll take it that it's your first time," she remarked gesturing around Woohyun. "Don't be so nervous. It's not like you're going to die...Well, not anytime soon at least," she said resting her round cheeks in her hands.

"And that's supposed to make me less nervous," Woohyun half-joked with a nervous laugh.

The girl pulled back and crossed her arms over her chest. "I mean we all die," she said rather happily. "Well, _most_ of us die technically." Woohyun raised an eyebrow at that, but the girl waved his unspoken question away. "But that's not what you're here for, is it? When you die? Seems a little morbid for a guy like you."

"A guy like me?" Woohyun asked. He cocked his head. "What do you mean by that?" He tried to keep his voice still, uninterested, but this was why he came: for this question to be answered.

"A cute guy," the girl replied playfully. Woohyun smiled, but then tried to hide it by biting his cheeks. "See, you're finally relaxing," she pointed out, wagging her finger at him. Woohyun let his smile go and giggled some more. There was no use hiding himself from the psychic. She could actually read him pretty well and was able to still his nerves with just a few words. But then again, she managed to agitate his nerves again with a few more words. "And now that you're relaxed, I have a confession to make," she said sheepishly. She gestured with her index finger for Woohyun to move in closer, which he did. With one hand against her mouth as if to block out any one overhearing. "I'm not a psychic," she whispered. Woohyun scoffed. It was just his luck to find the only psychic so readily to admit that she was a phony. "I'm a witch."

His luck was even worse than he thought.

Woohyun froze, and only his eyes moved as the incredulously searched her. There was no way this girl, this girl in a bright orange tracksuit with yellow dyed hair, that she was a witch. Weren't they supposed to have warts and green skin? Or least an obsession with black?

Then she put a finger in his face, causing him to jump back a bit (and her to laugh at his dramatic reaction). "One moment please," she begged. Then she jumped up from her chair and skipped over to her small refrigerator, which (once she opened it) was filled to the hilt with bottles and tupperware. "So what do you want?" she asked as she pulled out a square tupperware container, gave it's contents a good sniff, winced at the smell, and then proceeded to toss it over her shoulder, narrowly missing Woohyun's head. "I've got love potions, animal transformation potions, a potion that makes you invisible, a potion that makes you bigger," she turned around and wiggled her eyebrows mischievously. Woohyun frowned and avoided her eyes. "No? Okay." She poked her head in the fridge again and pulled out a bottle containing an orangey-yellow liquid. "Ooooh! I have liquid luck!" she said as she uncapped it. Woohyun began to look excited. Finally a potion he had a use for! Then the witch sniffed it and frowned. "Oh, it's just orange juice...sorry."

Woohyun's patience with the little witch was wearing thin. "Look, do you have anything that will...I don't know...make me...get to know myself?" He was unsure of how to phrase the question, but the girl seemed to understand.

She nodded and pulled out another bottle from the fridge that was a strange brown-green color. She studied it slosh around in the bottle as she shook it. "It still looks good even though it's a little old, but it should still do the trick." She walked over to the sink and pulled out a mug from what Woohyun hoped to be the clean pile of dishes. She then poured the liquid into the mug. Well, more like she plopped it into the mug as it was extremely thick with a consistency closer to pudding than a juice. She handed it to him with a warm smile. "Drink up! One shot!" she cheered. "But no, seriously, drink it in one go. It tastes like strawberries so it should go down relatively easy."

"Thank you," Woohyun murmured, taking the mug from her. He apprehensively brought the mug to his lips. The witch was looking at him with an encouragingly look. _Worse case scenario: I die. Best case scenario: at the rate I'm going...I die. Screw it!_ And he choked down the thick liquid which clung to his throat as he forced it down. But the witch was right. It did taste like strawberries...rotten strawberries. Woohyun's face contorted, and he coughed, starting to feel a burning sensation in the back of his throat. "Now what?" he wheezed.

"Now...you go to bed!" she stated as if it were obvious.

Woohyun narrowed his eyes on her, and she fidgeted slightly under his gaze. "What happens to me now?" he asked very clearly.

The girl giggled. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, but let's just say to...expect the unexpected."

He didn't like that vague answer. "I'm not going to die, am I?" 

The witch wagged her finger. "Nope!" Her answer sent a wave of relief surging through Woohyun. "You expected that," she continued and Woohyun felt his heart dropping into his stomach along with the barely digestible concoction. "Trust me. There's no way you'll be prepared for what happens next. Just go with it."

_Just go with it_ , she had advised. And so Woohyun tried to listen. When he got home, he felt sleepy (probably due to some sedative in the potion), and so he went to bed. He woke up the next morning with a splitting headache, fuzzy thoughts, and an empty feeling in his chest (probably also due to the damn potion). There was an incessant chirping in his ears, which was odd because he didn't recall setting an alarm clock. But it was annoying, loud, and kept Woohyun from being able to fall back asleep.

"Hm? What's that noise?"

Woohyun froze. That thought was his, but the voice wasn't. His eyes widened at the realization, what was happening. In addition to the emptiness he felt inside his chest, suddenly Woohyun was all too aware of the weight resting on the top of it. He slowly glanced downwards and was greeted with the sight of boy who had a faint smile on his lips despite the fact that his eyes were still heavy with sleep (now it wasn't the first time Woohyun woke up with a strange boy in his bed, in fact that's how he met Sungyeol, but once again, a different story for a different time).

"Make it stop, and let's go back to sleep," the boy suggested as he nuzzled into his chest. His arms snaked around Woohyun's waist.

Curious, Woohyun lifted up his comforter. To his relief, Woohyun was fully clothed in the clothes he wore last night, not even bothering to change before he passed out. Then he panicked and dropped the comforter. The boy on top of him was completely naked. All the sudden he was finding it really hard to "just go with it." This just didn't make sense. He waved his arms about not knowing what to do with them, until he decided to grip the boy's shoulders and peal him off of his body. The boy finally opened his eyes, which were large and their ends came to a point. His plump lips formed a pout as they emitted a whine at the sudden loss of warmth. "Who are you?" Woohyun demanded, shaking him.

The boy laughed, too loudly. His mouth looking like it had ripped wide open. He poked Woohyun in the cheek. "You're funny, Woohyun. Like  you don't recognize your own Id when you see it." But then he pursed his lips and looked upwards. "But I guess you never saw me because I've always been here," he mused pointing at Woohyun's chest. But Woohyun could barely register those words because the chirping was growing louder, as if it was getting closer to his ears. Then boy whined again, louder this time. "Turn it off! It's annoying. Let's sleep." He returned to nuzzling his cheeks into Woohyun's chest.

_My Id_ , he thought looking down at the boy. Being a psychology major, Woohyun was well aware of Freud's theories, but he had always thought that they were nothing but hokum and antiquated. But here he was supposedly looking at his Id, in person. And the boys features did seem to look wild. And their thoughts...

His Id's he popped up from the covers. "Oh! Superego!" His head darted back and forth. His long black hair whipped Woohyun's face. "Where'd he go?"

Woohyun had been thinking the exact same thing. If his Id, his impulsive side, was right here in front of him, his Superego, his conscience, couldn't be far away. "I don't know," Woohyun responded propping himself on his elbows, causing his Id to slide down. And Woohyun stared at him, slipping lower and lower, and the boy was still naked. This was...a compromising situation. "First we need to get you in some clothes, then we can..."

"Food! The kitchen is over here, right?" his Id asked jumping out of the bed, and without waiting for Woohyun's answer, slipped out of the bedroom door.

"WAIT! NO! YOU NEED CLOTHES!" Woohyun shouted, chasing after him into the kitchen, not even caring that the chirping noise had never stopped.

_Shit_. Sungyeol was sitting at the kitchen table with his mouth hanging wide open as a strange naked man was raiding his fridge. It was one of the very few times that Woohyun had ever seen his roommate speechless, and he would have considered it a victory, if he had done it on purpose. Sungyeol then turned to Woohyun with his owl eyes growing three times their sizes, but then they soon shrunk down to normal and were joined with a wide, mischievous smile. "Someone had fun last night," he remarked, his eyes darting back and forth between Woohyun and his Id. 

But before Woohyun could open his mouth to quickly concoct whatever excuse that could possibly explain this situation away (there was none), his Id cut him off. "Oh yea, it was a lot of fun, Yeol! We went to go see a psychic, but she was actually a witch and then..." Woohyun clamped a hand over his still moving mouth.

Sungyeol cocked his head, "A psychic-witch? Wait...how do you know who I am?" He narrowed his eyes on Woohyun who was wrestling with his  squirming Id who was still trying to talk. "Who is this kid?"

"He's my..." Woohyun stammered as he looked at the boy next to him, who was now jumping up and down (not helping the situation at all).

"Boyfriend?" Sungyeol filled in the blank.

"Uh, sure."

Sungyeol looked back down at his cereal bowl with a smirk on his face. "It's about friggin' time. I'm sick of you moping around here, and it looks like this kid," he pointed at the Id (who now Woohyun had kept quiet by stuffing some bread in his mouth). "He looks like he'll keep you busy. And you, put some damn clothes on," he yelled at the naked boy. "Woohyun isn't the only person who lives here. Have some respect."

The Id nodded enthusiastically as he chewed with his mouth wide open. The food could be seen, rolling about in his mouth. Woohyun grimaced looking at him. _So this is what my inside looks like? Great. Just friggin' fantastic._ Woohyun grabbed his Id by the hand and dragged him back into his bedroom after apologizing profusely to his roommate. He needed to find his Superego, and he needed to find him stat. He didn't know how much longer he could control his Id by himself. And not only that, but the emptiness that he felt in his chest felt like it was growing bigger.

* * *

After forcing his Id in clothes (which he did not appreciate claiming that he just wanted to "be free" and all clothes felt too tight on him), Woohyun dragged him outside, clutching him by the hand so that his Id couldn't run off. Thankfully, his Id seemed to like the skinship and was swinging there arms as he skipped by Woohyun's side. But, unfortunately, even more than the skinship, the Id liked the outdoors. It was so full of distractions, and he was so easily distracted by them. If the Id wasn't happily skipping by Woohyun's side, then he was pulling Woohyun to look at a bird, or sniff a flower, or to tell a girl that the pants she was wearing showed off her rear end very well. And then there were times when Woohyun would dig his heels into the ground and pulled back on his Id's hands, and they would have a mini tug-of-war until his Id realized that he probably shouldn't do what he wanted and would relent. All of this left Woohyun exhausted, and it was barely noon.

Then that's when they saw him: a boy emerging from a building with a stern look on his face, wearing khaki pants and a cardigan. Also his shirt was tucked so neatly into his pants that they might as well have been tucked into his underwear. Just by looking at him, Woohyun could tell that he was a straight-laced guy who had never done anything wrong in his life, that he was his Superego.

Woohyun dragged his Id with him to hide behind a bush and further observe the preppy man, who was looking into the sky smiling and unconsciously and politely bowing to those who walked by him, manners being so ingrained in him that a 90 degree bow came as a reflex. "That must be him," Woohyun muttered. He then turned to his Id who was chomping and the bit. Woohyun put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down (and to pin the bouncing boy down as well). "Alright, we'll grab him on the count of three." The Id nodded as if he understood. "Ready, 1..."

"I got him!" the Id yelled as he leapt from behind the bush and pounced on the unsuspecting target (Woohyun was impressed that even though his Id was small, he had a lot of power and was easily able to tackle the other into the ground...either that or his Superego was just that weak).

Woohyun sighed, now expecting his Id to act out in that way. He walked out casually from behind the bush, looking at his Id and Superego fighting each other.

"I said that we were going to grab him on the count of three."

* * *

 Moments later, Woohyun was blowing butterfly guts off of Dongwoo's hands. "We're separated from each other. He's my Id, and you're my Superego...aren't you?" he asked glancing up at the other (who 'claimed' his name was also Dongwoo, but Woohyun could tell by the twitch of his mouth and the avoidant gaze that he was lying).

The boy set his jaw and lifted his chin. "No," he said sternly, and turned around to walk away.

Dongwoo pulled against Woohyun's hand, wanting to chase after him, but Woohyun reined him in. "No," Woohyun said, lacing their hands back together. "Let him go, Dongwoo."

 "But it has to be him," Dongwoo insisted stomping him foot on the ground and emphasis. "We felt something." But then he cocked is head and scratched it with his forefinger. "My name isn't...isn't it Woohyun too? Id?" he asked.

"For now. Let's just call you Dongwoo," Woohyun suggested. He was glad that he had an actual name to call his Id by, which he needed especially if Sungyeol thought that this crazy entity was his boyfriend. Then Woohyun sighed, looking at the retreating figure, shielding his head from the rain with his hands. "But I don't think our Superego will come easily. I think that he's trying to teach us a lesson." It would be just his Superego to take this mishap as a teaching opportunity. And Woohyun knew that he had a lot to learn (probably because he didn't listen to his conscience very much).

"What lesson?" Dongwoo asked, looking in the same direction as Woohyun with a pout.

"Hell, if I know," Woohyun answered with a shrug. And then he faced the sky, resigned, looking for any sign of what to do next.

"Hehehe Woohyunnie, it's raining!" Dongwoo exclaimed. He wriggled his hand away from Woohyun's grasp (and he let him because Dongwoo seemed to be behaving better). Dongwoo raised his arms. "Doesn't it feel great?" he asked gleefully, now spinning around in circles. "It feels so nice on my skin. Maybe if I..." he mused beginning to lift up his shirt.

"No Dongwoo, keep your clothes on!"

* * *

Now, Sunggyu was in the library attempting to get a start on his homework, but there was something in the back of his mind, gnawing at him incessantly. Sunggyu kept tapping his pen at the edge of his notebook, which earned him mean glares from the other library-goers who were deep in their studies. He bowed apologetically to them and then turned his gaze out the window. It was raining harder now, and he could barely see ten feet in front of him through the thick downpour. _Those kids, if they're still out there, must be drenched. No, only a crazy person with half a mind would still be out there...but they were acting weird and didn't seem to be entirely with it. Especially that Dongwoo kid._

Then Sunggyu's mind flitted towards another fact: the Abnormal Psychology class normally would perform these bizarre experiments, acting outside of social norms, to see how others would react. It was the only logical explanation for their behavior. And it was a test. And like any other test, Sunggyu had no intention of failing this one either. He grabbed his belongings, and ran back outside into the storm to find those two.

But once he got to where he last saw them, they were already gone.

* * *

"Achoo!" Sunggyu sneezed loudly, and he wiped his nose with his sleeve. His classmates sitting next to him, slowly scooted away from him with grimaces on their faces. But Sunggyu didn't notice because the pressure in his head was clouding his thoughts. He had caught a cold from being outside in the rain for too long. He had tried looking for the two people he swore were gangsters (even looking beneath the bush), but there was not a sign, not a trace of them anywhere, leaving Sunggyu to wonder if he had made them up. If they were a figment of his cold-addled mind.

_No that's not possible. I wasn't sick yet_ , Sunggyu thought. He put his pen to his notebook and realized that he had not been listening to the teacher this entire lecture. He looked up at the teacher in front of the class droning on and on. The teacher was all the sudden talking about 'the line of best fit,' and wasn't his psychology class? Or did he wander into the wrong room? Sunggyu looked around with furrowed brows and a confused pout. No, this was his psychology class. And there was that one kid who barely showed up for class, Lee Sungyeol. He was oddly, diligently taking notes on the lecture, nodding along to each word the teacher said while fiddling around with a weird necklace around his neck. And here was Sunggyu, top student in the class, completely zoning out. Sunggyu rubbed his temples. What was wrong with him?

He was so out of it that he didn't realized when the lecture was over. All of the sudden he realized that he was the last one in the room besides the teacher, who happened to be staring right at him. Crap.

"Kim Sunggyu, can I have a word with you?" the older man asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

Sunggyu quickly gathered up his things and walked up to the teacher. "What is it, professor? Is there something wrong with my paper?"

The man let out a short laugh. "No, your paper is perfect. One of the highest scores of the class," he said.

Sunggyu smiled, but only for a minute. "Wait...one of the highest."

"Yes," the professor answered as he leaned back on his desk and cocked his head. "Are you tutoring Sungyeol? Because his paper was fantastic."

_Sungyeol, Lee Sungyeol got a better grade!_ Sunggyu raged in his head. _That kid barely makes it to class!_ But Sunggyu hid his inner feelings well. He smiled politely and responded, "Uh, no sir."

The answer seemed to please the professor. He just shrugged. "That's funny. He must have put in the extra effort this time around. Anyway, speaking of Sungyeol, I have a question about his roommate."

Sunggyu cocked his head. "Sungyeol's?" he asked. He barely knew his classmate outside of his inability to show up to class on time (and then he would either sleep through the class or text on his phone the entire time).

"Yes, Nam Woohyun," the professor clarified. "I talked with Sungyeol, and I'm not surprised that he doesn't have a clue what's going on with his roommate. But I saw you playing around with him yesterday. Do you know what's going on with Woohyun?"

_Playing around with? Who was I? Oh...that gangster looking kid_. Sunggyu shook his head. "To be honest, I don't know him very well."

"Oh, really?" the professor asked, his eyes widened. "Then I'm sorry to ask. It's just that he's my assistant, and I haven't seen him in my office yesterday or today. I was just wondering if everything was okay with him."

"Well, sir. In my unprofessional opinion," Sunggyu said with an unsure voice and avoided his teacher's gaze. "He seemed to be having a nervous breakdown," he finished with a sigh.

The professor automatically burst into laughter and his pat Sunggyu on the shoulder. "And I thought you said that you didn't know Woohyun," he said between wheezes. "Forget it. I'll just shoot him an email."

 And with that (and another 90 degree bow), Sunggyu left his professor who was still laughing hysterically. Apparently the rumor was true, only mentally disturbed people were attracted to psychology (or at least it held true for Woohyun and his professor). But Sunggyu had not time to dwell on either. He had his economy class next, and that class in particular required Sunggyu's entire attention. 

* * *

Sunggyu smiled softly to himself. The memories of the earlier class were slowly drifting away. His mind was now clear and focused, and economy was actually making sense. He had an epiphany earlier in the lecture, and all of those facts that used to be disjointed in his mind were now coalescing together in his mind, like a beautiful piece of art. But in the middle of his enlightenment,  his classmate, Myungsoo, poked Sunggyu in the side with his pen. Sunggyu turned to him with a large frown. Myungsoo looked unfazed as he pointed to the window with his pen. "I think he wants you," he whispered.

Sunggyu's brows furrowed in confusion as he turned in the direction of Myungsoo's pen. "Ah!" Sunggyu yelped and jumped up in his seat as his eyes met with that wild boy from the other day, Dongwoo. His forehead was pressed onto the glass as his eyes were narrowed, trying to look through the pane. Dongwoo then gave a thumbs up to Myungsoo for getting Sunggyu's attention, and then gestured to Sunggyu, with that impossibly broad smile, to come outside with him. Sunggyu shook his head. Dongwoo nodded in response, his shaggy black hair falling into his eyes. Sunggyu shook his head again and mouthed, "No." To which Dongwoo shouted "Yes!"

The entire class then turned around to face Sunggyu, and Myungsoo was laughing hysterically at his side, clapping like a seal. The old economy professor raised her eyebrow at Sunggyu and tapped her foot impatiently. Sunggyu cleared his throat, "Um, I think I have to go. Excuse me."

"Please do," the professor curtly remarked, which caused to Sunggyu to wince. He never wanted to give a teacher a reason to hate him, and now he was disrupting and voluntarily leaving class early. What was with him today? Sunggyu knew the answer; he knew it all too well. _Dongwoo_.

"Dongwoo! Kim Dongwoo!" Sunggyu heard someone yelling at him and saw Dongwoo barreling towards him. Sunggyu had almost forgotten about his white little he told him.

"Um, it's actually Sunggyu," he found himself admitting. For some reason, he felt like perpetuating that lie to such an innocent smiling face was an injustice, that and the fact that Sunggyu couldn't deal with guilt very well.

"Sunggyu," Dongwoo asked with a tilt of his head. Then his smile grew wider. "I like that even better. Come on, Gyu! Let's play!" he urged, grabbing onto Sunggyu's forearm and dragging the other behind him.

"But...but," Sunggyu stammered. "My class."

"You left," Dongwoo retorted not even halting his step. Then he looked back at Sunggyu. "Let's go to the arcade. No, let's get food. Oh! We could watch a movie! Or the amusement park! Or...:"

Sunggyu pulled his arm from Dongwoo's grasp and stopped. Dongwoo turned towards him confused. "Where is your friend? Where's Woohyun?" he asked, recalling his psych professor's question. 

Dongwoo shrugged. "Don't know. He's probably..." Then he stuck his nose in the air and sniffed. "Oh! Jokbal!" he exclaimed and sprinted off in the direction of the market near the campus.

But before they even reached the jokbal, Dongwoo discovered the fishcakes and the ddeokbokki. And Sunggyu discovered that the easily distracted boy had no money on him. After Dongwoo quickly ran away from one stall with a chicken foot hanging out of his mouth, Sunggyu sighed and pulled out his wallet for the fourth time. "Sorry, ajumma. Is this enough?" he asked putting forth a wad of cash from his fast dwindling wallet.

The ajumma waved him off. "Don't worry about it. It was just one chicken foot," she said with a raspy chuckle. Sunggyu blushed having been refused. Dongwoo not only stole the chicken foot, but he did so not by taking it from the pile with his hands, but with his teeth. "You seem to have your hands full with that one. He looks like he's going to fall into the lobster tank," she said nodding to the right.

And sure enough when Sunggyu turned around, he saw Dongwoo slowly lowering his head into the lobster tank. "Yah! Dongwoo!" he yelled. Dongwoo suddenly stood up straight and looked back to Sunggyu with a sheepish smile.

"Look, Gyu!" he exclaimed pointing to the tank (Sunggyu was starting to wonder if this kid had another volume besides loud). Sunggyu strutted over and peered at the lobsters. "Look, they're holding claws with each other. Do you think they're friends?" he asked, looking at the lobsters with a level of concentration Sunggyu didn't know he was capable of. Dongwoo had been staring at these things for a couple of minutes, two times longer than he had spent at the other food stands. And he was watching them with such wonder and awe in his eyes, like he was seeing this for the first time.

Sunggyu tried to fight back the smile creeping on his face. "Eung. Maybe," he answered, crouching down next to Dongwoo and watched the lobsters with him for a few moments longer. It was strange. Sunggyu had obviously seen lobsters before (and eaten them on several occasions), but this must have been the first time he ever watched them, alive, interacting with each other. They crawled about in the tank, their knobby claws bumping the glass tank. They were clunky, awkward, like little reddish tanks. Sunggyu laughed (and Dongwoo laughed along with him). But then his eyes fell on two lobsters in the corner, and it did look like they were holding claws as they lapped over each other. _Do lobsters even mate?_

Dongwoo then faced Sunggyu. "Can you hold my hand?" he asked, extending his palm towards Sunggyu. Sunggyu tensed up with apprehension and just stared at it. "Woohyun does," Dongwoo explained. "It makes me feel better."

Sunggyu let out a slight snort. _Doesn't it make everybody feel better?_ But then he faced Dongwoo again, who was looking at him with pleading eyes, his hand grabbing at the air between them. Maybe Dongwoo wasn't pretending. Maybe he wasn't acting out for an experiment. Maybe Dongwoo did have a problem. Maybe Woohyun was his support, his tether to reality. And maybe, just maybe Sunggyu could help him too. "Sure," he gave in, wrapping his hand around Dongwoo's, and the latter gave a contented sigh and his perpetually excited face grew calmer. Sunggyu smiled looking at their hands. Such a simple gesture, and Dongwoo was already acting more...normal. If he did more, maybe Dongwoo would relax even more. "You said that you wanted to go to the arcade..."

"YES!" Dongwoo shouted, jumping up and pulling Sunggyu up with him. "Let's go!" So much for a calm Dongwoo. 

* * *

Woohyun woke up and turned to face his alarm clock. It was noon. He missed all of his morning classes. His missed his appointment with his adviser. And he was missing his worry. He just plain didn't care. The only reason why he pulled himself away from the warmth of his bed was because of the angry grumbling coming from the pit of his stomach. Wrapping a blanket around himself, he stumbled out into the kitchen, where once again Sungyeol was sitting at the kitchen table. But unlike last time (or any other time in Woohyun's memory) Sungyeol was surrounded by books, studying, and with a weird pouch hanging about his neck. Woohyun nodded to him in acknowledgement as he opened the refrigerator door. 

"Woohyun?" Sungyeol called to him, carefully setting down his pen. 

Woohyun pulled a carton of milk from the fridge and closed the door with a kick of his heel. "Sungyeol?" he mocked him. He sat down across from his roommate.

Sungyeol fingered the pouch around his neck. "I'm worried about you," he said quietly.

Woohyun raised his eyebrows. Sungyeol was never the one for deep and sensitive conversations. He was more of a fan of senseless arguments and weird hypothetical situations, but nothing ever real or serious. "I'm not the one wearing some hippie pouch around my neck," Woohyun jabbed at him like he usually did.

But it wasn't as well received at it normally was. There was no retort, just a pout. Sungyeol removed the pouch from his neck and gently set it down. "It's my new sugar glider," he explained. Woohyun raised an eyebrow but Sungyeol ignored it. "But that's not the point. I'm not the one who looks catatonic. I know that you've been in a bad mood lately, but I thought your new boyfriend would cheer you up. But...is he the reason why you're in a bad mood? Is he not treating you right?"

Woohyun scoffed. "What are you talking about? I feel fine."

"Don't give me that crap," Sungyeol said, slamming his pen on the table. "I haven't seen you smile in days, which is really _really_ weird for you. And what's with this robot voice? Are you trying to be the Terminator or something?"

Woohyun scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said honestly. He did feel weird, ever since his Id and Superego became separated from him. But apart from the emptiness in his chest, Woohyun had thought that it was his only symptom. He had thought he had been acting normal (or at least normal in comparison to Dongwoo).

The pouch next to Sungyeol began bouncing around, and shrill noise was coming from it. "Oh!" Sungyeol gasped turning his attention to the pouch. "He's awake," he announced, getting up from the table and gathering the pouch in his hands. "I'm going to put him in his cage, but we're not done. If you're not better in a few days, I'm going to...OKAY! OKAY! I'll put you in your cage!" Sungyeol shouted to the pouch, which was getting louder and more squirm-y(?). He then ran off into his bedroom.

Woohyun scoffed and put the milk carton back into the fridge. But he paused after he caught his reflection in the shiny stainless steel. It did look...off. He then ran off into his bathroom and looked into the mirror. His face looked frozen, as if it had been injected with botox. Woohyun tried to smile, but nothing not even a slight twitch of his lips. And his eyes looked dull and dark as if they were colored in with a Sharpie. This was not his face (well, it was, but wasn't at the same time). The emptiness in his chest ripped wider, feeling it spread to his upper arms and his gut. 

"Yeol! Have you seen Dongwoo?" Woohyun shouted to his roommate as he gripped the bathroom counter.

"Yeah! He said that he was going to find Dongwoo and left an hour ago. Exactly how many Dongwoos do you know?"

Only one other one, and hopefully that Dongwoo could save him.

* * *

"Yeah! Let's go!" Dongwoo yelled, his voice reverberating in Sunggyu's ear. The Id jumped up and began to drag the other away from the lobster tank, but something caused him to stop.

"Yah! Dongwoo!" a voice called out from the street. Sunggyu and Dongwoo turned and saw Woohyun running up to them. Once he reached them, panting, he raised his eyebrows looking at Sunggyu up and down.

Dongwoo raised his hand, which was still wrapped around Sunggyu's, and showed it to Woohyun. "Look! I found our Superego!" he said as if he expected to be praised for it. Dongwoo then looked up to Sunggyu with smiling eyes. "He's nice. He got me food, and we looked at lobsters, now we're going to the arcade...NO! Let's go shopping!" He then grabbed onto Woohyun's hand and tried to pull him forward with him.

But he stood his ground, causing both Sunggyu and Dongwoo to jerk back. "No," Woohyun commanded in a cold voice. Dongwoo looked at him with a pout, begging, but Woohyun just shook his head. And to Sunggyu's surprise, the boy actually listened to the other and walked back to his side. Sunggyu was beginning to feel awkward now because he was still holding Dongwoo's hand, which didn't seem right with Woohyun holding the other (like they were parents toting around a little kid). So he let go of it and began to back away from the two, but before he could take another step, he felt a firm grasp on his forearm. "Where are you going?" Woohyun asked. "I just found you again. And I'm not letting you go this time. Whatever lesson you want to teach me, do it later, okay? I promise that I'll listen better to you. I'm sorry." His voice was flat but he was trying to be sincere, but it didn't seem to register with Sunggyu.

He laughed. "Lesson? What lesson?" he asked. "The only lesson I'd want to teach you is to look after your dongsaeng, your ward, or whatever, better," he admonished gesturing to Dongwoo. "He's a good kid, but he needs to be looked after and taken care of. If you..." Sunggyu was about to offer his help, after seeing first hand how troublesome Dongwoo could be (but also endearing), but then Woohyun cut him off.

"Don't you think I know?" he replied curtly. "It's your job as my Superego to help me out. So stop running away from it, Dongwoo!"

"Sunggyu," a small voice corrected.

"Hm?"

"His name is Sunggyu. He told me," Dongwoo said, walking up to Sunggyu and patting his behind for emphasis (to which Sunggyu immediately slapped his hands away but Dongwoo was still innocently smiling and giggling at him).

A chilling, dry laugh came from his side. It came from Woohyun who was gripping his sides as if the metallic laughter was ripping through his body. "What Superego lies about his name? It's not like you had one in the first place," he managed to get out between gasps. Was Woohyun really this messed up to have a conscience that spew nonsensical lies?

Sunggyu frowned looking at the scene (especially after Dongwoo joined in the giggle fit, but at least his cheerful squeals drowned out Woohyun's robotic laughter). "I do have a name," he mumbled. "Because I'm not your damn Superego!" he said more loudly.

"Fine," Woohyun spoke as he stood up straight again (Dongwoo, however, was still rolling on the floor). "Care to prove it," he challenged.

Sunggyu crossed his arms and leaned back. He did not have a clue how to deal with these two. They were certifiably insane in his opinion, completely nuts. _But_...he looked down at Dongwoo who finally finished laughing and now decided to take a little nap out there in the streets, exhausted from the day's activities. The boy was no different from a puppy; he was impulsive and demanded much attention, but also somewhat obedient (whenever he happened to listen) and cute. Dongwoo was laying there, curled up in a ball, soft snores slipping past his lips, and his limbs were even twitching like when a dog dreams of running. But then he saw Woohyun crouch down next to his sleeping friend, sighing as he pushed the hair from his eyes and wiped his drool with his sleeve. Woohyun, even though his face was stiff and stoic, it was obvious that he was tired. Sunggyu could see the dark circles forming under his eyes. _Because people are crazy, it doesn't make them bad. Come on, Sunggyu, do the right thing._

Sunggyu crouched down next to Dongwoo and looked at Woohyun apprehensively. "What do I have to do?"

* * *

And who knew that it would only take Sunggyu 10 minutes to start regretting his decision? "Nu uh! I'm not going in there," he protested, rooting himself at the top of the stairs. "This place looks like a breeding ground for crime."

Woohyun groaned in frustration. His Id was infinitely easier to handle than the boy in front of him, especially know with Dongwoo basically sleep-walking behind him about to fall asleep again. And Woohyun wanted nothing more than to sleep himself, but he had to settle matters. He had to get his Superego under control. But it was bucking against him like a wild horse. "It's perfectly safe. We live over there," he explained nodding to the apartment building across the street. Sunggyu just stared at Woohyun and cocked an eyebrow as if it proved his point. _Yep, this is definitely my Superego. So judge-y_  (In fact Woohyun's mother had said the same exact thing when he first moved in there). "Come on. We go in, get confirmation that you are my Superego, get fixed, and get out in under five minutes."

Sunggyu pursed his lips in thought as he subconsciously tapped his foot. After a few seconds, he spoke, "Only five minutes. Then I'm getting out of here." He brushed passed Woohyun but paused to pick up and support the zombie-like Dongwoo through the doorway. Woohyun scoffed. In just a few minutes, he's going to be proven right, and he'll never let his Superego forget it. Because for someone who denies that he isn't, Sunggyu sure does act like it a lot.

This time, when Woohyun entered the pyschic's/witch's liar, it was slightly tidier, and she was sitting Indian-style on the floor in a red track suit and her short brown hair tied up in a side pony-tail. She was laughing hysterically, watching a variety show while cramming ramyun into her mouth between laughs. "Hey witch," Woohyun called out to her, which earned him a slap on the back of his head from Sunggyu.

"Don't call her that," he growled in a low tone to Woohyun through his teeth as he politely smiled at the girl in front of him.

"Oh, but I am," the girl answered with her high-pitched voice. She covered her mouth with one hand as she spoke, to hide the sight of her chewing on the noodles. Sunggyu's smile fell, and if Woohyun could smile, he definitely would have, but all he could manage was a slight smirk. After a hard swallow, the girl smiled, "So what's up?"

"Uh, I kind of want to be put back together again," Woohyun said gripping onto Dongwoo's and Sunggyu's hands and showing them to the witch. 

"Let go," Sunggyu muttered quietly, shaking his hand out of the other's grasp. 

Woohyun pointed a finger at him and turned to the witch. "Is everybody's Superego so damn difficult or is it just mine?"

The girl looked as if a lightbulb had turned on in her head, and she clapped her hands at the realization. "Oh! So that's what's going on here? It's so obvious now. Silly me," she said hitting her temple with the heel of her palm. "Come," she ushered them to sit with her at the table (which was surprisingly clear and gleaming). Sunggyu and Dongwoo walked over to join her, but Woohyun was rooted in his place.

"Did you forget what you did to me?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Pbft!" the witch snorted. "Of course not...it was the Mental Break potion...that split you into three parts, right?" her voice drifted into a question. Woohyun nodded and noticed her pumping her fist in triumph under the table. He rolled his eyes. The girl cleared her throat, pretending that she hadn't done anything. "See I know."

Woohyun walked over to the table and sandwiched himself between Sunggyu and Dongwoo. "So...are you going to fix this?" he asked curtly, his patience was waning. There was nothing more he wanted to do than crawl back into his bed and pretend that these past few days were nothing more than a strange dream...no a nightmare. Dongwoo, his Id he would miss because in spite of him being Woohyn's main source of exhaustion. But Dongwoo was cute and cuddly, and it had been a long time since someone had held Woohyun like that when he slept (well, he hadn't been exactly sleeping lately because he was afraid that Dongwoo would run off in the middle of the night, which he did do once Woohyun finally fell asleep). But Woohyun wouldn't miss his Superego, not one bit, especially since he could practically hear the other rolling his eyes at him.  This was his Superego, a part of him, and Woohyun hated that he disliked Sunggyu because that meant disliking a part of himself as well, making Woohyun want to forget this all the more.

"Sure thing," the witch said, finishing with a tight-lipped smile. Then she looked around the room and subconsciously puffed her cheeks. "But where's the other one? I only see two of you here?"

Woohyun looked over to his right, to Dongwoo, and sure enough he found the chair empty, but he saw a pair of bouncing feet peeking from underneath the table. Woohyun bent over, looking under the table, and saw Dongwoo crouching underneath there, clutching his knees to his chest. "Do I really have to go?" he asked in a loud whisper. "Can't we play some more?"

Woohyun let a slight laugh. "Trust me, even though you're going back in here," he replied pointing into his chest. "I'm probably still going to listen to you more than him," he finished with a nod in Sunggyu's direction. "So we'll play all the time."

Dongwoo's eyes shrunk into sparkling, smiling crescents. "You promise?" he asked holding out his pinky finger.

"I promise," Woohyun answered, hooking his own pinky finger with the Id's and then pulling him up from underneath the table by it. "Found him," Woohyun announced to the witch.

But then she shook her head. "Not him. Not your Id. Where's your Superego?" she asked. Woohyun wordlessly pointed a finger in Sunggyu's face, which the other automatically slapped away and frowned. "No he's not."

"Huh?"

Sunggyu smiled in triumph as he turned to Woohyun. "I told you," he said, as he shook his head back and forth, relishing in his victory. But it was only a slight one, and the proud feeling he felt from being right soon fled. For the first time, he saw some sign of emotion from Woohyun's dull eyes. It was fear.

"W-what do you mean?" Woohyun stammered turning back to the witch.

The girl straightened up in her seat as she explained, "You and Dongwoo have the same aura." She pointed at the two on the right. "Same color, same vividness, same clarity...But this guy," she began turning her attention to Sunggyu. "He's different...but I can see why you got confused. His aura is very special." Sunggyu could've sworn that she winked at him after saying that.

Woohyun clutched his knees tightly in frustration. But what he was holding in, Dongwoo let out. His Id got up abruptly, causing his chair to fall over. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT?" he growled, bearing his teeth. Before he could do anything else rash, Woohyun's hand automatically gripped Dongwoo's forearm, and the anger quickly fled from his tiny body. But it was soon replaced with another emotion that was now ripping through Woohyun. Embarrassment. Dongwoo's face was glowing red and his lips were trembling. Then he turned to Sunggyu. "Oh my God! Oh my God! I am so sorry!" he apologized profusely.

Sunggyu giggled nervously, not knowing how to properly handle the situation. He waved his hand. "Don't worry about it," he said calmly. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Dongwoo insisted. "You told us you weren't, but we didn't listen. Then we forced you to come here and...and...I can't...I can't do this. I can't stay here," Dongwoo stuttered as he slowly backed up and then broke out into a sprint, escaping from the small apartment that felt like it was closing in on him. 

Sunggyu was stunned and just sat there for a few moments, staring blankly at Woohyun whose eyes were glued to his lap. "Why are you just sitting there?" he asked sternly, finally finding his voice. Woohyun looked up at him with those lifeless eyes, staying perfectly still to Sunggyu's annoyance. He let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine. You pay the witch, and I'll go find Dongwoo. He can't be too far off," he ordered as he got up from his chair and ran after the Id.

Woohyun watched the other's back as he left. _He's not my...I'm such an ass_. His thoughts were swirling about in his head like a tempest. He had disliked Sunggyu, bordering on hatred, but now given the new information. It was like the filter had been lifted from Woohyun's eyes. Sunggyu wasn't the stubborn and annoying Superego that he thought that he was struggling with. He had been patient with them, indulged them, and tried to understand them. Whereas Woohyun was acting... _I'm such an idiot._  

He slowly lifted his head, and his eyes met with the witches. She held out her hand and smiled cheekily. "That will be 15,000 won."

* * *

Sunggyu ran out the apartment door and immediately stumbled after his first step outside. He looked down to see what he tripped over. It was a leg. His eyes carefully followed that long leg to see Dongwoo burying his face in his hands. Sunggyu laughed quietly in relief and crouched down next to him. He placed his hands on his shoulders, running his thumbs against the bony joint. "Hey, buddy. Why did you leave?" he asked in a gentle voice.

Dongwoo slowly lowered his hands from his face, but his eyes were still fixed to the ground. "'Because I wanted too run away."

"You didn't get very far," Sunggyu pointed out with a slight chuckle.

Dongwoo's gaze met his, and a sheepish smile crept onto his face. "Because I wanted to be found."

Sunggyu couldn't help it and tapped him on the nose. "Well, I found you."

The smile grew larger on his face, and the sparkle returned to his dark eyes, looking as lit as the country night sky. "Yea."

Then the door opened again, and Woohyun walked out with his hands deep in his pockets and his dull eyes studying the scene in front of him. Sunggyu looked up at him, but then Woohyun turned his gaze down the street. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I won't bother you anymore. Let's go home, Dongwoo," he announced as he extended his hand to Dongwoo. His Id grabbed it and pulled himself up.

"Can we eat first?" Dongwoo suggested, clutching tighter onto the hand. Woohyun nodded and dragged him away from the witch's apartment.

"I'm hungry too." Woohyun turned around and saw Sunggyu standing up from his crouched position. He put his hand in his pockets and looked off into the distance. "I'm hungry too," he repeated.

"Do you want to..." Woohyun began, but...

"GYU! Eat with us!" Dongwoo said, running up to Sunggyu's side. "It will be great! We can eat and DRINK! We haven't drank in so long. And then we can..."

* * *

Looking at the boy sitting across from him right now, devouring the pork as if he was a ravenous dinosaur picking apart a carcass, tendon from bone, Sunggyu wondered why he forced an invitation from the duo. Then his eyes drifted to the other, delicately picking apart his own meal, but mostly cleaning up after his Id. _Curiosity, that must be it_ , Sunggyu concluded as he chewed on his food. But curiosity only made up a small part of the reason. Sunggyu finally had a taste of what an interesting and exciting life was like, and it had awakened all of his senses that had been unstimulated for so long. And he wanted more. It was addicting.

Sunggyu shook his head with a slight snort, looking at the scene. "I can't believe he's your Id," he remarked. "You too look nothing alike."

Woohyun faced his and tilted his head. "What do you mean? We have the same hair color," he retorted dryly. Sunggyu scrunched his face in response. "It was a joke," Woohyun explained.

"Oh," Sunggyu exclaimed and chuckled a little. He pointed his chopsticks over to the other. "You're funny."

"I know," Woohyun remarked, patting Dongwoo's back, who had begun choking after accidentally lodging something in his throat.

"And modest too. Is he okay?" Sunggyu asked, bringing his glass of water to Dongwoo's lips, who then greedily drank it.

Looking at his Id, "I sure hope so," Woohyun answered. The emptiness in his chest was now slowly starting to cave in, forming a vacuum, bit by bit sucking away at his entire being. It was getting worse ever since he learned that his Superego was lost, without a single trace or clue. He was in a state of aporia. And if Dongwoo were to leave, Woohyun was afraid that his soul would go too. At least with Dongwoo by his side, a piece of his old self was still tethered to him, maybe by a thin, nearly invisible thread, but it was still there.

"I'll pay for this," a voice snapped Woohyun from his dark thoughts. Sunggyu was sifting through his wallet and pulled out his credit card. "You've had a rough day as it is. This is my treat." Woohyun stared at the other, just blinking.

"Thanks Gyu!" Dongwoo shouted. "I like you." Woohyun slapped his own forehead with the heel of his palm, groaning.

Sunggyu laughed as he got up from the table to pay the bill. But before he left the booth, he reached across the table and patted softly Dongwoo on the top of his head. "I like you too, Woo." Woohyun's eyes narrowed on that hand, now carefully smoothing out the hair it just messed up before leaving the Id's head. _What?_

* * *

The trio was walking back to Woohyun's apartment. Sunggyu was chuckling as he was watching Dongwoo dart back and forth across the street with a jaunt in his step. Everyso often he would stop and stare at something, maybe smell it, and on occasion lick it (which ultimately lead to a comical grimace which made Sunggyu laugh even more). _He is a puppy, in every possible way_. "I can't believe he's your Id," he repeated to Woohyun.

"You keep saying that," Woohyun pointed out, his eyes never drifting from his Id (well except for when they fell onto Sunggyu's face for a second or two). "Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Yes," Sunggyu admitted. His eyes widened for a second. "Just an hour ago, I didn't believe magic existed. And I thought you were some gangster, hounding me for money because my friend signed me as a guarantor. And that Dongwoo was insane. Well, he's still insane. But it makes sense now, in a really illogical way."

"You thought I was a gangster?" Woohyun rasped through a tight throat.

Sunggyu started to get worked up, defending himself vehemently. "Well look at you! Your face is so serious. It never changes! That's why I can't believe Dongwoo is actually...you! He's cute, and you're..." He let his shivers speak for his lacking words.

"I can be cute too," Woohyun insisted. Sunggyu shook his head in disbelief. Woohyun stopped and tapped the other lightly in the forearm, signalling him to watch. "Watch," he commanded. Woohyun brought his hands to his temples and began making bunny ears, bouncing back and forth from one side to the other.

"Wah! So scary!" Sunggyu exclaimed as he rubbed his hands up and down his forearms to eradicate his growing chilling goosebumps. "Your face was so serious. It looked like it was from a horror movie."

Woohyun rolled his eyes. "You're exaggerating," he retorted.

"Try it again," Sunggyu suggested, giving the other an encouraging nudge. Not wanting to give up, Woohyun tried the bunny aegyo again, but to his dismay Sunggyu added his own horror sound effects. Woohyun automatically lowered his hands, and his hunched shoulders showed his disappointment. Sunggyu, on the other hand, was laughing to loudly to notice. "See it fits!"

"Haha very funny," Woohyun remarked dryly. His eyes flittered over to Dongwoo who was now walking back over to them. Woohyun could predict what he was about to do and shook his head to dissuade the other. Dongwoo relented and turned his attention towards the dog tied up to a lamppost outside of a convenience store. Then Woohyun looked over to Sunggyu at his side, who was smiling warmly as he watched Dongwoo pet and talk to the dog. "We might not look alike," Woohyun admitted. "But we share the same thoughts."

Sunggyu raised his eyebrows, and his mouth gaped a little. "Really?" Woohyun nodded. "So when Dongwoo ran away earlier..." Sunggyu left for Woohyun to finish.

"I wanted to run because I was embarrassed," Woohyun explained.

"But why did you just sit there then?" 

Woohyun shrugged. "Because you can't runaway from all of your problems."

Sunggyu nodded as if he understood perfectly well. A few moments of silence grew between them, but shrank when a snigger snuck past Sunggyu's lips. He turned to Woohyun with eyes like he knew a secret. "And when Dongwoo touched my butt earlier today..." Woohyun automatically looked away and cleared his throat. Sunggyu laughed and pointed at Woohyun's still stern face. "You did! You thought about my butt, didn't you?" Woohyun started to walk away from him. "I don't blame you. I have a very charismatic butt!" Sunggyu called after him.

* * *

Eventually, the three reached Woohyun's apartment complex and were hovering around the entrance, at a loss for how to end things for the night.

"Gyu, you said that you were going to drink with us," Dongwoo broke the silence. 

"I did?" the other asked.

Dongwoo pouted and let out a slight whine. "Yea, earlier."

Sunggyu smiled. "Okay," he gave in. Then he turned to Woohyun. "Do you mind?"

Woohyun shook his unchanging face. "Not at all." _Maybe Dongwoo isn't always troublesome._

* * *

 But an hour later, Dongwoo wasn't the troubling one. He was busy peeling off the labels from the bottles. His eyelids were heavy from the alcohol and sleep. He was nodding his head, falling closer and closer to the table he was sitting at. Sunggyu quickly put a pillow underneath him before he collapsed completely onto the table. Looking at the dozing Id with a sigh, Sunggyu then turned his attention to Woohyun. "Give me that," he commanded as he tore the beer bottle from Woohyun's lips.

Woohyun tried to grab for the bottle again, but Sunggyu pulled it away. "I have two bodies to drink with, and I'm making the most of it," he slurred. "Give it back."

Sunggyu put the matter to rest by polishing off the bottle himself. After wiping his lips, he warned, "You may have two bodies now, but _you_ only have one life." He saw Woohyun out of the corner of his eye looking for a bottle with some alcohol left (there was none. Sunggyu had made sure of that). "You didn't eat today," he remarked. "You shouldn't drink on an empty stomach."

"I ate," Woohyun defended.

Sunggyu shook his head. "No you didn't. Dongwoo did. And he can't eat for the both of you."

Woohyun slammed a bottle onto the ground and stared at Sunggyu with furrowed brows. "Are you sure you're not my Superego? You sure as hell are acting like one. Like a stupid wet-blanket, party pooper, moral f****ing compass."

"And you wonder why I'm cutting you off?" Sunggyu remarked with a resigned sigh. "And I'm not your stupid Superego. I'm your friend." The word felt strange on his tongue. He had only really gotten to know Woohyun that day, but after everything he had witnessed, Sunggyu gathered that he probably knew the boy better than anybody now.

"Psh," Woohyun scoffed. He scooted over to Dongwoo and leaned his head onto his back, using it as a pillow. "None of my friends act like this."

"Then..." Sunggyu paused, biting his lips in thought before continuing. "Maybe you just have sucky friends. Friends are supposed to take care of each other. Maybe that's why you keep getting me confused with you Superego, you've never had a real friend." Sunggyu assumed that he said too much as Woohyun was staring at him with that soulless, unblinking stare again.

But Sunggyu had now idea how deep the words cut Woohyun, because they were true. Aside from Sungyeol, who was now abandoning him for his 'new' friend, all the other people Woohyun had called his friends, were more like fair weather friends. They were only in his company to be part of his infamous stories, but whenever nothing happened or he needed them, they would leave. Woohyun studied Sunggyu's face as the other tidied up the empty bottles. Once his Id left, would Sunggyu leave too? Once he became uninteresting again?

Woohyun closed his eyes tightly as he asked, "Sunggyu, if you're not my Superego, can you just be mine for awhile until I find it?"

 

Sunggyu dropped the bottle he just picked up and faced Woohyun. "Pardon?" he asked with blinking eyes. He must have misheard.

Woohyun opened his eyes and lifted himself from Dongwoo (who groaned from the loss of contact and began shifting). Woohyun brought his hand to his chest and rubbed where his heart should have been. But now, he felt nothing there. He felt nothing at all. He looked up at Sunggyu and confessed, "It's really weird to have a part of me that's missing. I can't remember what it feel like to have a conscience anymore, but I know it's gone because...I don't feel whole. I hate it." Then he looked down at Dongwoo, slowly waking up and smacking his lips. Woohyun brushed his hair from his eyes with one hand and grabbed his hand with the other. "I also hate it when Dongwoo isn't around, when he runs off. I feel even emptier, like a shell." Dongwoo woke up, but only for a moment. Only to wrap his arms around Woohyun and nuzzle into his chest. Woohyun responded by pulling him closer and resting his back against the couch.

Sunggyu shifted awkwardly in his spot. "Really?"

Woohyun looked down at Dongwoo and brushed his long hair with his fingers. "You said you were my friend earlier," Woohyun whispered. "Can't you do it for me as a friend?" he asked in a slightly louder voice, making eye contact with Sunggyu.

But Sunggyu wasn't looking at him. His eyes were fixed on the Id. Dongwoo clutched tightly onto Woohyun. Sunggyu laughed to himself. Wouldn't a feral horse run wild the moment it broke free? But this little black stallion came galloping straight towards its master, willingly. That's when he realized it. Dongwoo wasn't just climbing _onto_ Woohyun; it was as if he wanted to climb back _into_ him, back into his soul where he belonged. Sunggyu hadn't really thought about it before. How the reality would be terrifying and overstimulating for someone who embodied human instincts. Freedom is nice, but so is comfort. And those two normally don't go hand in hand. Because with comfort come assurance, which does not exist often in pure, unadulterated freedom.

 

And so laid the Id, still for once, completely tame. Maybe Woohyun had a better grip over his Id than Sunggyu previously thought. _But_...His eyes then drifted up to the so-called charioteer, the Ego, Woohyun. Sunggyu may have never met Woohyun before, but he had heard of him. It was hard not to, with the amount of people he knew and with the crazy stories he was attached to, which were passed from person to person like campus legends. Woohyun had said that he felt like the shell of the person he once was, and by looking at his stoic face, Sunggyu had a feeling that this wasn't the main character of all of those stories. He was a charioteer without one of his horses, and his chariot was wobbling, lopsided down the circuit.

"Sure I'll be your white horse," Sunggyu found himself offering. But then found himself wondering if Woohyun knew what he meant.

He did. "Thanks."

 

At that moment, Dongwoo stirred awake and pulled himself away from Woohyun. He turned around and gestured. "Gyu, come here," his voice hoarse with sleep.

Sunggyu leaned in closer to him. "Hm? What is it?" he asked. His question was soon answered when Dongwoo's rough hand grabbed the back of his neck, his long fingers tangling in the short hairs on the nape of Sunggyu's neck. Dongwoo tugged him closer and placed his lips on top of Sunggyu's, pressing them harder and harder against each other, until Sunggyu couldn't feel the softness of his plump lips any longer but the hardness of his teeth. Sunggyu's hands flew to Dongwoo's chest. This isn't right. And he pushed the other away from him. "Uh, no," he whispered as soon as their lips parted.

Dongwoo blinked several times as his pupils darted everywhere, searching Sunggyu's face for any sign. His own face grew redder by the passing second. "You...you didn't like it? You didn't want me to?" he stammered. Sunggyu bit his bottom lip, now swollen, as he thought carefully for his reply. But apparently he didn't speak soon enough. And Dongwoo backed to Woohyun and put his arms back around him, as if Woohyun was his rock in the storm that was his feelings. "I'm sorry," he murmured. His back was heaving, as if he was fighting off tears. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm...impulsive. I need to think things through. But I can't...I can't."

Sunggyu scooted closer to him and ran his fingers through his hair. "Dongwoo...I don't know," he muttered gently. He looked up at Woohyun, who was oddly quiet this entire time. "Is he okay?"

Woohyun looked down at the man quivering in his arms, rubbing soothing circles into his back. "Yea, this week's been hard on him. Hard on us. He was just looking for some comfort...I'm sorry," he finished, glancing up quickly at Sunggyu.

"It's not your fault. You didn't do anything," Sunggyu replied, grabbing one of the labels that Dongwoo had previously peeled off and a pen from his pocket and began to write on it.

Woohyun paused for a little too long before responding. "Right."

"I'm leaving," Sunggyu announced as he handed the label to Woohyun. Woohyun took it and read it. It was a number. "Call me if he gets out again, okay?" Sunggyu said as he got up, straightening his pants before continuing. "Or you can...just call me...if you're having any trouble."

"You'll be my white horse?" Woohyun asked glancing between Sunggyu and the piece of paper in his hands.

"I'll be your damn Superego," he answered with an unconscious smile.

"Thank you," Woohyun said as he gripped onto Dongwoo more tightly.

"Bye Woohyun." But he bent over, bringing his face inches away from Dongwoo's. "Bye Dongwoo!" he said, cheerfully, hoping to bring the other out of his funk. Dongwoo lifted his head slightly to look at him. Sunggyu smiled warmly. "It's okay. Don't beat  yourself up over it."

Dongwoo's eyes widened and his smile returned. "It is? It's really okay?"

"Eung. But next time, maybe just think a moment or two," Sunggyu warned, tapping his own head with his forefinger. "Or at least give me fair warning." 

"Okay Gyu," he answered, giving Woohyun a tight squeeze.

Woohyun snorted in response. "Hey! Chastising my Id is my job," he said to Sunggyu.

Sunggyu patted Dongwoo's head a couple of times before standing back up. "Not anymore," he retorted with a cheeky smile. "I'm your Superego now. If you don't like it, tough. You're stuck with me like you're stuck with him." He finished pointing at Dongwoo.

"I regret ever asking you," Woohyun joked, and Sunggyu must have caught his humor this time because he was laughing as he walked out the door and bid them good night.

But once Sunggyu left the complex. He stared up at the night sky, and the stars were twinkling. He brought his hand to his lips, lightly touching them with his fingertips.

The kiss. Sunggyu's never really thought about it before, his preference. He spent so much time doing what he thought was right, what society had wanted him to do that he abandoned his own leanings, desires for anything outside of the norm. He had never even thought about deviating from the course. 

But that kiss. He had liked it. It was nice, warm, short, but not void of passion. In fact, Sunggyu could still feel the force, the lingering pressure on his lips, left there by the Id's passion. But that was just it. Dongwoo wasn't a person. He was Woohyun's Id. That kiss, Woohyun had wanted to do it. He had thought of doing it at that moment when their eyes met, but then Dongwoo intervened, impulsively acting on the thoughts that he and Woohyun shared.

The kiss, he had liked. Dongwoo, he liked. But as for Woohyun, Sunggyu didn't know. Woohyun, as he himself had said, seemed to be just an empty shell. But on the other hand, Dongwoo was bright, lively...crazy, yes, but there was something about him that was endearing, that made Sunggyu wanted to care for him. But didn't he just agree to be Woohyun's conscience? So wouldn't that mean he cared for Woohyun too? Or was that just so he could keep a close eye on his troubling Id? But wasn't Dongwoo and Woohyun the same person in the end?

Sunggyu's head was spinning as he collapsed in his bed at his apartment. Although his mind and heart were restless, his body was exhausted after chasing those two around all day, and sleep soon overcame him easily. But right before his mind drifted off into slumber, it had one last thought: what Woohyun would look like with Dongwoo's gargantuan smile plastered onto his cold and unchanging face?

"Cute."

* * *

 The next few days were full of firsts for Sunggyu. He missed class for the first time, and he surprisingly didn't care (or spontaneously combust with anxiety like he thought he would). He had also jumped into a fountain for the first time (he had followed Dongwoo into it), and subsequently got in trouble with the cops for the first time. And for the first time in his adult life, he was having fun.

Also acting as Woohyun's Superego was a challenge, but not at difficult as he thought it would be. As it would turn out, Sunggyu's nagging nature aided him greatly in the task. Admonishing Woohyun whenever he forgot to eat, when he needed to sleep, when he had classes or had to meet with his adviser. However, while Woohyun greatly benefited from this, Sunggyu's life wasn't. For now, his life was on hold. Which is why, when he ran into Howon for the first time in days, the latter was surprised to see that he was still alive.

"I haven't seen you in days, and you haven't been returning my calls. I thought you were in the hospital...or dead," Howon said bluntly. 

Sunggyu smiled apologetically and crossed his arms. "I'm sorry about that. I've just been a bit busy lately."

Howon looked over at the two waiting somewhat patiently for Sunggyu in the distance. "I can see that. When did you become friends with Nam Woohyun?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sunggyu rubbed the back of his neck with his hand nervously. "It's a long story," he finally answered. "But I promise to fill you in on it later...when things settle down."

"And when will that be?" Howon always had a gift for asking the right questions for stumping Sunggyu.

"I don't know."

"HEY GYU! Who's your friend?" Dongwoo yelled as he skipped over, unable to wait a second longer (and Woohyun unable to contain him any longer). "He's cute," he declared with a short giggle. He walked up next to Howon, looking him up and down.

Then Howon jumped up, his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. "He just touched my butt!" he announced to Sunggyu completely astonished.

Woohyun had finally caught up with them in time for Sunggyu to yell at him. "Do you have a butt fetish or something? Do you find everything with legs attractive?"

Woohyun's mouth gaped open. His eyes widened slightly. "No, no I don't," he insisted.

"Don't lie to me," Sunggyu replied with a scoff. "Woohyun. He's your Id!" But when he turned to Woohyun, he saw the severity of the matter in his eyes. Everything about him seemed more stiff about him, completely rigid as if he was drawn there with a pencil. Frozen with fear.

"Sunggyu, I didn't think that. Dongwoo...I think he's having his own thoughts."

* * *

The trio immediately went to the only place that would have the answer, that cramped basement apartment across the street from Woohyun's. The neon sign was black. The door was locked. But they were desperate. Especially with Dongwoo now having his own thoughts, he became more erratic and unpredictable. Woohyun's control on him was gradually slipping. The reins falling from his hands. Even now with Woohyun knocking and kicking the door impatiently, Dongwoo was becoming more distracted, wanting to follow everyone who walked passed them on the street. Sunggyu had to have a tight grip on the collar of his shirt. But Dongwoo was struggling so hard against him, Sunggyu was afraid that the shirt might rip.

Things were slowly tumbling beyond their control. The chariot was veering from its course.

Then to their relief, the door finally opened. A bleach blonde head poked through the door, with a wallet in her hands. "About time you got here. We're starving!" But then she looked up. "Oh! You're not the delivery man. You're...that guy! What's up? Do you feel like you've gotten to know yourself yet?" she asked, resting her head against the door frame.

"No," he bluntly retorted. The smile fled the witch's face. "I'm f****ed."

"Yah! What's taking so long?" another voice came from behind the witch. Suddenly, another face appeared, completely identical to the first, with the exception that her hair was short and brown. "Oh! It's you!"

"There's two of you?" Woohyun was officially confused.

"Try five."

* * *

Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Woohyun were now sitting at a slightly longer table (the original table had extendable wings). Across from them were five girls, two of which were identical. The remaining three had varying cute looks, but all were dressed in colored track suits with their hair tied up in various styles.

The blonde witch spoke first. "Meet my doppelganger," she said, pointing to her twin. "My inner child," she pointed to the youngest looking of the all, with blunt bangs and pigtails in a yellow track suit. "My voice of wisdom," she smiled to the girl next to her with a long side ponytail dressed in a blue track suit. "And my voice of an idiot," she joked gesturing at the girl at the end of the table in the pink track suit.

"Yah!" the girl in the pink suit yelled. She then turned her attention to the boys across from her. "She's just jealous. I'm her inner beauty. She created me to prove a point to her boyfriend, but then he ended up dating me instead."

The girl with the bleached hair shook her head. "Yea, wasn't my brightest moment."

"None of us were," her voice of wisdom teased.

"Alright," the blonde witch slammed the table. "All of you out! I have business to do."

"Touchy," her inner child retorted as she got up to leave the table, but not before she gave a tug on the witch's pigtails.

Eventually, they all left, except for the doppelganger who stayed rooted in her chair, and the other oddly did not insist that she leave like the others. Instead, the girl in the red track suit narrowed her eyes on Dongwoo. "His aura is changing," she commented. "It's becoming more bright, whereas yours," she faced Woohyun and studied his. "It's becoming more opaque."

"What does that mean?" Woohyun asked.

The one in the orange track suit answered. Her voice was more somber than he ever hear before. "If you become separated from your parts for too long, they become separate from you," she explained, staring at the table and avoiding the boys' eyes. "And they begin to build an identity all on their own. That's what happened to me."

The twin stared at the girl next to her and shook her head sadly. "I don't even know which version of myself is the original," she said with a sigh.

The other pouted. "It's me!" she exclaimed.

The girl in the red shook her head vehemently. "NO! You practically are the chibi version of me with your chubby cheeks," she argued, grabbing the other's cheeks in her hands and squishing them.

The blonde one slapped them away. "The only reason why you don't have these cheeks is because you can stick to a diet," she retorted.

"Then you're impulsive, my Id," the witch in red pointed out.

"But you're strict, my Superego!"

Sunggyu cleared his throat, and the twin witches turned their attention to him. "What about Woohyun? What should we do to fix this?" he asked.

"You have to find his Superego and you have to find him now," the girls replied in unison.

"Oh creepy!" Dongwoo exclaimed with a shiver. "Do it again!" he urged.

"NO!" they replied.

They were about to leave the apartment, putting their shoes back on at the door, when Sunggyu heard a whisper coming from behind him. "Psst! Guy who's not the Superego." Sunggyu turned and saw the witch in the red peeking around the corner. "Come here." 

Sunggyu gestured to the others to wait for him, and he walked over to the witch. "What's up?"

"You remember what I said about your aura last time?" she asked. Sunggyu nodded. She lowered her voice even more. "You knew what I meant right."

Sunggyu quickly looked behind him, seeing Woohyun helping to put the shoes on Dongwoo as the other was squirming and putting the girls' shoes on his hands. He smiled. "Yea, I think I do." But when he turned back to the witch, the smile fled from his face and his eyes widened. "You don't think that will change, will it?"

The witch nodded. "If you don't find the Superego, he'll always just be the shell of the man he once was," she answered, resting her head on the wall.

Sunggyu winced and put his own head against the wall as he groaned. "Why did you tell me?"

The girl patted his back, trying to encourage him. "As an incentive."

Sunggyu turned his gaze back to the duo. Woohyun was now playing around with Dongwoo, also placing the shoes on his hands. But it looked odd with his straight, unsmiling face. Sunggyu already had all the incentive he needed.

* * *

Sunggyu closed the door behind him as he left Woohyun's apartment complex. Woohyun was being inconsolable. Ever since he had heard the news, his mood grew darker, and so did his eyes. Sunggyu had tried to encourage him to come out with him to search for the Superego. But it was impossible to get Woohyun to move from his bed, that he crawled into right after the meeting. "If we hadn't found him yet, we never will. We lost, Sunggyu. We're lost." Even Dongwoo's mood seemed affected by his, still being attached  tenuously by their minds. The Id crawled under the bed, and refused to come out.

But Sunggyu wasn't so willing to give up, or to crawl away and hide. They still had time left. Unfortunately, he had no idea where to start, where to go, what to do. So he sat on the curb with his head in his hands, trying to clear his head.

"Whoa! Sorry!" Someone apologized as he tripped over Sunggyu's feet. "Didn't see you there. Oh, it's Sunggyu!"

"Sungyeol? Where are you going?" Sunggyu asked looking at Woohyun's roommate curiously. He was holding an umbrella and a piece of rope.

"I'm testing out a theory," he said shaking the umbrella in his hands.

Sunggyu shook his head. "You're not Mary Poppins. If you jump off the roof with just an umbrella, you will die...or get seriously injured at least."

"Duh! That's what the rope is for," he replied, rolling his eyes.

Sunggyu laughed. "Thank God you didn't major in Physics or you'd be failing all of your classes."

"Whatever. At least I'm not in some weird polyamarous relationship. Seriously what's going on between you three?" Sungyeol retorted.

Sunggyu groaned. "I don't even know anymore." Then Sunggyu stared at the other curiously. There was something different about him. Something missing. "Hey Yeol, where's your sugar glider?"

Sungyeol groaned. "Ugh! That thing. It was so noisy, and it didn't seem to like Woohyun, always screaming whenever he entered the room. So I gave it away to my friend."

"Too bad," Sunggyu said.

"Yea, but now without that thing. I can have fun again without worrying. And now...to the sky!" Sungyeol exclaimed, dramatically pointing to the sky as he left.

Sunggyu waved goodbye, laughing at the boy (and prayed that he would return home safely). It seemed like Sungyeol was back to his old ways, ditching studying for his dangerous antics. His good streak seemed to be over as quickly as it began. _That was a weird phase. I wonder what started it_...Sunggyu's eyes widened. The realization shook him to the core.

_Figures that Nam Woohyun would have a conscience the size of a pea._

"Yah! Yeol-ah! Who's your friend?"

* * *

There he was, sitting on a park bench, cradling the pouch delicately in his hands, smiling sweetly. He was putting an apple slice to the lip of the pouch. "You hungry, Sungjong-ah?" Myungsoo cooed. "What a good, little pet. So cute!"

Sunggyu tried to walk over to his classmate as nonchalantly as he could, but there was an urgent bounce in every single one of his steps. "Hey Myungsoo!" he yelled more fiercely than he meant too, causing the other to leap and bring the pouch protectively to his chest.

"Oh, Sunggyu-hyung," Myungsoo greeted, relaxing slightly, but his grip tightened around the pouch. 

Sunggyu sat down next to him. "So...Yeol told me about your new pet."

"Sungjong?" Myungsoo fingered the pouch tenderly as he brought it to his lap. "What about it?"

"That it's not really a sugar glider," Sunggyu whispered, trying to peek into the pouch.

"He did?" Myungsoo said in shock. "He said that it was going to be our little secret." There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Can I see it?" Sunggyu asked.

Myungsoo shrugged. "I guess, but don't tell anybody," he warned, bringing a finger to his lips. He opened the pouch wide enough for Sunggyu to peer into it. "Isn't he cute? I think he likes me."

Sunggyu lifted his his head, and he saw it. A small little boy with delicate, fine features and cat-like eyes, munching on an apple chunk larger than himself. But unlike Dongwoo, who ate like a carnivorous beast, this Sungjong looked prim and proper, occasionally wiping his mouth. And Sunggyu swore that he could even see his pinky being extending fancifully into the air. Then their eyes met, and Sungjong swallowed roughly. He mouthed to Sunggyu, "Save me." Sunggyu looked quickly back up to Myungsoo who was smiling proudly at his new pet. Then he looked back down at the pouch, the lip was opened just wide enough.

Sunggyu thrust his hand into the bag, grabbed the tiny Superego, and sprinted away before Myungsoo had enough time to snap out of his daze.

"Yah! Kim Sunggyu! Give me back my Jonggie!"

* * *

"Psst! Woohyunnie," Sunggyu whispered into Woohyun's ear. He had run all the way from campus back to Woohyun's bedside. In his absence, Dongwoo had crawled out from the bed and was now playing video games with Sungyeol (who was forced to forego his Mary Poppins experiment after he was locked out of every rooftop in the vicinity). But Woohyun appeared to be fused into the bed, in a state of depression. He, however, stirred at the sound of Sunggyu's voice (or at the feeling of his hot breath in his ear). Woohyun turned to face him.

"What is it?" his voice rasped, but Sunggyu didn't answer. Instead he brought his cupped hands to the surface of the bed and opened them to reveal the tiny boy inside. Woohyun looked up at Sunggyu with wide eyes. "What is it?" his voice stronger this time.

"Yah! Nam Woohyun!" the Superego yelled walking from Sunggyu's palms and up to Woohyun's face, looming in front of him. He began to tug on the Ego's dark hair. "Get your ass out of bed! If I knew that you were going to be this fargone, I would've stayed with Myungsoo. He was nice. He listened to me. Unlike you! Did you not hear me calling you this entire time? Did you really think that I was some kind of nocturnal mammal that somehow woke-up every time you were around? Use your damn brain! And you, Sunggyu-hyung, thank you for all of your help. But I can take it from here."

"Okay," Sunggyu got up from the bedside and was about to leave the bedroom, but then he stopped. "Wait, did you just call me hyung?"

Sungjong rolled his eyes. "Yes, you are two years older than me."

Sunggyu's jaw dropped and his eyes drifted to Woohyun, who was now avoiding his gaze. "You knew?"

Sungjong knocked Woohyun's temple roughly with his fist. "Yah! Did you forget your manners too when I was gone? You are just as bad as Sungyeol. He stuffed me into a bag. A BAG!"

At that moment, Sunggyu decided to sneak out of the bedroom door and let Woohyun get lectured by his Superego. _It's about time he listened to that thing._ He walked out into the living room and saw Sungyeol and Dongwoo still playing video games. "Hey Dongwoo," Sunggyu called. The Id immediately dropped the remote and bounced over to Sunggyu. 

"What's up?" he asked cheerfully, unconsciously dancing around and ignoring Sungyeol's complaints of leaving the game unfinished.

A sudden sadness gripped Sunggyu's heart as he studied Dongwoo's forever smiling face, the smile that seemed to stretch from ear to ear, from his chin to his eyes. The sadness deepened when he heard Dongwoo's innocent chuckle leave his plump lips. Sunggyu cupped his face, rubbing his round, smiling cheeks under his thumbs. _This might be my last time seeing...this...all of this. My last time with Dongwoo._

Dongwoo immediately frowned seeing Sunggyu's grave face. But Sunggyu lifted the corners of his mouth with his hands back into a smile. "Don't do that. Don't frown. I want to remember you like this."

Dongwoo smiled again and raised himself with the balls of his feet and softly pecked Sunggyu on his lips. "I'm not going anywhere. I always will be with you and Woohyun."

Sunggyu let out a sad sigh and dropped his hands from Dongwoo's cheeks. "I found the Superego. He's in there now with Woohyun," he nodded in the direction of the bedroom.

"REALLY?! GYU THIS IS GREAT!" Dongwoo jumped up and down a couple of times before tearing off into the bedroom.

Sunggyu sighed again after watching the bedroom door close, putting his hands in his pockets. His job here was done. Sungjong had relieved him of that duty. All he had left to do was to return back to his dull life, leaving Nam Woohyun to live his after he put himself back together again. And that was something that Sunggyu could not help him with. Woohyun had to figure out this one on his own...with a little help from magic.

* * *

For the last time, Woohyun knocked on the door of the basement apartment. Sungjong was perched on his shoulder, and he was holding Dongwoo by the hand. The door almost immediately opened this time, answered by the twin witches. "We'd knew you'd come soon," they said in unison, causing Dongwoo to squeal with glee, liking everytime they did that.

"Did you see it in your crystal ball?" he asked.

They shook their heads. "Nope, lucky guess," the blonde responded with a cheeky smile. "We're witches not psychics, remember?"

"I came with all the parts this time," Woohyun announced. "Can you put me back together now?" 

The twin witches exchanged nervous glances. "Unfortunately we're bad at this part," the brunette admitted, rubbing the side of her head with her hands. "There is a reason why I'm still in pieces."

* * *

Surprisingly, it only took a week for Sunggyu to acclimate back to his old life, his old habits, to do what he did before and not be completely bored by it. The events from before now seemed like a distant dream. Especially now since he was piled under mountains of backed-up homework and it was the week of final exams. He barely had any time to sleep, let alone to eat or breath. The library became his residence, and he even briefly considered having his mail forwarded to there. It was the normal life of the average college student during exam week, stressful and with the sudden urges to say f**** it and runaway, only to return seconds later with your nose stuffed farther into a textbook.

Even Howon started to adopt his boring habits, and studied diligently with Sunggyu in the library. 

One day, when the both of them were exchanging notes for their English class, a strangely familiar voice called out to Sunggyu. "Gyu-hyung! Gyu-hyung! Gyu-hyung!" The shouts were quickly followed by a hail of "shhhs", and Sunggyu turned to the source of the sound. He saw Woohyun bowing apologetically to those around him...with a smile on his face. Then their eyes meet. Woohyun's eyes were no longer dull, but they twinkled like constellations in the night sky. And they morphed into crescents as his smile reached his eyes. The sight was all so familiar. All so Dongwoo. Sunggyu had thought that he would never see it again. _I'm not going anywhere. I always will be with you and Woohyun._

Sunggyu had been so stunned that he didn't even notice that Woohyun was right next to him. "You don't remember me?" he said with a cute pout, showcasing his plump lower lip.

Howon slammed his book shut, garnering their attention. "Trust me. He remembers. And he won't shut up about it," he dropped that truth bomb as he gathered up his belongings and left. "I have a test."

Woohyun pulled out the chair next to Sunggyu and sat down. "Why didn't you call?"

"I could ask you the same," the other retorted, but a little too loudly. The stressed out students hissed at them again.

Woohyun grabbed Sunggyu's hand. "Let's get out of here."

* * *

Once they reached outside, Woohyun took in a deep breath, inhaling fresh air for the first time in hours. But then a pleasant smell hit his nose. "Oh! Jokbal! Let's get some, hyung!" he announced as he began to make his way to the market without even waiting for the other.

Sunggyu chuckled as he jogged up next to him. "It really was you the whole time, wasn't it?"

Woohyun faced him with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Dongwoo, Sungjong, they were all you," Sunggyu explained.

Woohyun frowned. "I don't get why you were always so surprised by that...is it a bad thing?"

Sunggyu shook his head. "No, I liked them a lot."

Woohyun stopped in his tracks. For the past week, he had been wondering why Sunggyu had suddenly left. He had blamed it on the finals, but in the corner of his mind, he had thought that it was because that Sunggyu had liked Dongwoo but not him. Dongwoo was interesting, fun, and cute...but it was also Woohyun at the same time. Not only was it was Woohyun, but Dongwoo was essentially all of Woohyun's vices: his impulsiveness, his overbearing aegyo, his temperamental nature, among other things. And Sunggyu had like it. Sunggyu had liked it a lot. But what had finally chased the doubts from his mind was that Sunggyu admitted to liking Sungjong as well, who he'd met only for a short hour, but long enough to make an impression on the other. 

Woohyun smiled mischievously. "Hyung, do you like me?" he asked.  Sunggyu halted, and the tips of his ear began to grow read. He turned around, and Woohyun could see the blush painting his cheeks. "You do! You do like me!"

Sunggyu scoffed, trying to act cool. "I never said that."

"You never denied it either," Woohyun pointed out.

"Look. It's the lobster tank," Sunggyu abruptly changed the subject as he walked over to the tank and crouched down by it to watch the crustaceans interact. But then he winced. He had forgotten that he had done this with Dongwoo and not Woohyun, which would make this suggestion appear to be random, not what Sunggyu had intended to do...to call up a sweet memory that they shared.

"I like watching lobsters too," Woohyun confessed as he crouched next to Sunggyu. "Sometimes they look like they are holding hands with their claws." He demonstrated with his own hands, turning them into claws and trying to hook them onto each other. "It's silly but cute."

For the first time in a long time, Sunggyu stopped thinking, stopped trying to rationalize his impulses away, to hide them, to force them down and away. Because what he learned from this entire experience, is that sometimes, you need to let the black horse run free. Sunggyu grabbed one of Woohyun's hands and placed his free hand, cupping Woohyun's smiling cheek, rubbing it under his thumb. "You're silly but cute," he muttered as he brought his lips against Woohyun's and kissed him like he had wanted to for a long time. The kiss was soft and tender, unlike the rough one he had with Dongwoo. This one he preferred more because it seemed to express more feelings that the both of them were leaving unsaid, more than just passion and want. There was also a sense of need. They needed each other.

After breaking the kiss, Woohyun smiled again, more brightly this time. His smile spreading from ear to ear, from his chin all the way up to his smiling eyes."I knew that you liked me."

"Shut up, or I'll throw you in with the lobsters."

**Author's Note:**

> The girls in the basement apartment was supposed to be Crayon Pop, with the Heo twins as the witches. Also I know that I made Dongwoo a complete caricature, which makes me a little sad because I didn't do that character justice.
> 
> Finally, I borrowed that whole "lobster" thing from FRIENDS, when Ross and Rachel are described by Pheobe as being each other's lobster. I thought it was cute so I adapted it.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
